This photograph is of my father, Sydney Bartell (then Bernstein), as a young man off on his own, circa 1922/23, age two. According to Uncle Harry, this was taken by a roving street photographer. For that reason, I have reversed the image. To my knowledge, street photographers at the time took reversed images which allowed them to process the image on the street in a matter of minutes. My sense is that the photographer probably called my father over and had him pose for the shot. Later, the image would be marketed to a family member. The reversed image looks correct to me.
It was at this age that my father went missing one day. Family and friends searched the building and neighborhood looking for him for some time. He was later found wandering around a train yard, thank G-d! This was the start of some serious wanderlust that caused him to enlist in the Merchant Marines, misrepresenting his age, being only seventeen, one year shy of the requirement. He had "shipped out", as he called it. He signed, immediately boarded the ship as was the protocol, and wrote my grandmother a letter from Panama. He was off to see the "watery parts of the world", as written in "Moby Dick". He had reinvented himself. He was wild and free. As a poker prodigy, he had plenty of money to spend. My father was off to explore Asia, South America, and G-d knows where else. He shared little of these adventures. I do know that he returned periodically with exotic gifts for my grandmother, and regularly sent money home, a lot of money.
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